Not What You'd Expect
by natalie.grey
Summary: Aladdi, a famous and unlikely thief, is offered a job stealing from the palace. But when she meets Prince Jas in the marketplace, and he isn't exactly what she expected as a royal? She tries to go on with her plan, sneaking into the palace disguised as a princess. How will she pull it off without being caught or recognized? And what if she'd rather be a princess than a thief?


**Okay, so this is a crazy idea. But I always thought that Jasmine was too brave for Aladdin, and Aladdin was too insecure. So I thought why not switch genders and see where it goes? I don't normally write Disney fanfiction. At all, really. But I'm just trying this out, and who knows? Maybe somebody will like it. **

**I think I'll cut out the Genie and the lamp, so I can focus on the romance and kind of make a new story out of it. But you'll still run into a few familiar characters and elements.**

**I don't own anything. **

* * *

"Come back here, street rat!" the baker's voice hollered behind her. The girl looked back for the tiniest moment, her amber eyes flashing, only long enough to give the hulking man a wide grin. This made him brandish his rolling pin and lumber down the street slightly faster.

The girl clutched the warm loaf to her chest and slipped into a dark alleyway. She watched the huge man limp by from the shadows, still in hot pursuit of one of his freshly baked honey loaves and, more importantly, the street rat who'd stolen it from under his nose.

Emerging from her hiding place, the girl stopped to check both directions to be sure the idiot was long gone. Then she set off the way she'd come. Even the closest observer would have lost her almost instantly in a sea of brown robes and sandy streets, becoming just another figure browsing the marketplace.

Walking through the streets, the girl grinned and tossed the loaf over her head once, snatching it out of the air as though it were a toy. Stealing bread was child's play, but it was still necessary.

Clambering up onto one flat roof of many, she sank her uncommonly white and perfect teeth into the bread. The crust had cooled, but fragrant smells rose from the inside. Halfway through the loaf, she heard what she counted as half a dozen feet climbing the ladder to her perch. But the footfalls were light, not loud and clumsy like the marketplace soldiers'. She turned and smiled as three boys approached, all their faces split by wide grins.

All three boys were much bigger than her, but their glances showed that they respected this little gold-eyed girl. The tallest sat down by her, his legs dangling with hers above the market. His skin was a few shades darker than hers, more like the burnt spots on the bread than the ground cinnamon tone of her skin. "Getting in trouble a little early today, aren't you, Aladdi? The old limper has been chasing the alleyes up and down looking for you." He nodded earnestly, his eyes full of admiration.

Aladdi smirked. "Gotta eat to live; gotta steal to eat, Sed. You know that."

"Maybe you should let us walk you back home just the same?" That was Nik, the boy with one front tooth missing. The other two boys laughed. Aladdi was not a girl that needed protecting.

"I could take all three of you at the same time if I had to," Aladdi said. Her smile was dazzling, but the look in her eyes told the others that she was not bluffing. They knew it, too.

"Then I'll swap you a kiss for the rest of that bread," Sed offered with a wink.

Aladdi rolled her eyes. The boy who'd not yet spoken up did now. "You're not serious, are you Sed? You think she'd want to kiss you, with your teeth yellow as the sand and more rotten than fruit left for a month under the sun?"

Aladdi looked up at Rood, who was definitely the most handsome of the three. He was several years older than her, and ever since he'd met Aladdi had treated her with a quiet, fierce protectiveness.

"Well, who then? You?" Sed shot back. Rood blushed without a word, and Aladdi checked the position of the sun in the sky. She shrugged and stood, tossing the hunk of bread Sed's way. "Save the kiss for later. I have somewhere to be."

"You know, Laddi, someday I'll follow you on one of your appointments and find out who you meet."

"You know you can't outrun me," she said as she started toward the ladder with another grin. But this wasn't a bluff either.

"Are they near so nice as us?" Nik asked.

"No, not near so nice. In fact I hope that you never have to meet them."

"Do they know that you're a girl? Or that you're just a kid?" Sed called after her.

Aladdi had stepped down onto the ladder before she answered. Only her head was visible, her lovely brown face framed by wild black curls. "What do you think?" Then she was gone.

The meeting place wasn't far from the baker Aladdi had taken her breakfast from. She arranged her headscarf so it covered her black mane and most of her face.

She spotted Orem immediately. He was a tall man with a bald head and a round belly. He looked anxiously at the sun and then around. When she was close enough she spoke without even looking his way. "You wanted to see me?"

He jumped, then looked down at her. He peered close at her eyes, his only indication that she was the person he seeked.

"It's me, don't worry," Aladdi said in a well-practiced, annoyed tone.

"Shadow Walker. You did come. By the sultan's favorite camel, you midget! Next time give me a little warning before you pop out of the darkness."

Aladdi just smiled, knowing he couldn't see her face. "Well?"

"Ah, yes. Come with me. We're a bit obvious out here. You're not going to explain to me, are you, why you always wear a scarf over your face like a woman?"

"I have my secrets, you have yours. Now what did you want?" They'd entered an empty alleyway.

Orem hunched over her to speak in a low voice. "A client of mine has a job for you."

Aladdi raised an eyebrow. "Because you don't think I can find my own clients? Or because your man can't handle the job?"

Though the big man didn't give an answer, the look on his face told her: the latter. "Never mind that," he stammered. "You'd better accept this one before I lose patience. I should think you'd be all too eager. How long has it been since your last job? Reduced to stealing crumbs off the street yet?"

"Straight from the baker, actually," Aladdi muttered. "And it was still warm, too. So someone called you with a job for your man-" She said the words slowly, as though she didn't believe him. She didn't.

Orem threw his hands in the air. "What's the use?! You know all too well that you're the most famous thief in Akraba. Somebody needs your talents especially, and I was the only one who knew where to find you." Aladdi detected some pride in his voice.

She didn't correct him and say that he didn't know where to find her, only how to reach her. The message drop-off was across the marketplace from where Aladdi actually lived. Inconvenient, but necessary. Instead she nodded slowly. "Well, I'm flattered. Fine. What sort of job is this?"

The big man shrugged. "Get into the sultan's palace, grab a valuable item, get out again. The client doesn't care how you do it, only that it gets done."

"Any valuable item?" I prompted.

"Has your brain clogged up with sand, Shadow Walker?" His fist started toward her ear, but she was ready. Aladdi dodged the hand and kicked the back of his knee in return.

"Desert rat!" he roared. "Go stuff yourself down an elephant's throat."

"Oh, but if I do that I can't finish the job," Aladdi countered, grinning.

"Argh! Fine, but that'll be a piece out of your pay." She nodded for him to continue. "Anyway, this item is of particular value to your client. He needs the sultan's plans for the upcoming war with Fariz."

Aladdi shook her head in disgust. War. It hung in every doorway with an ominous whisper and it lay on the tongue of every man and boy with the taste of blood. It splashed onto the cheeks of mothers and sisters and wives with salt tears. But Orem was right about one thing- she hadn't had a job in a while.

"Think you're up to it?" Despite himself, Orem shifted his feet. "Like I said, he doesn't care about the way you acquire the plans, only that you do."

All Orem wanted, Aladdi knew, was to become the main contact to the Shadow Walker, the most coveted man to hire for any job that required a level of stealth. As much as Aladdi hated to give him that satisfaction, it was a job. "Any deadline?"

"By the next full moon."

"That's fourteen days," Aladdi muttered thoughtfully. "There's a ball and a feast, the whole affair, going on in the palace in a week. Something about the Prince choosing a bride. The royal families are coming from everywhere, whether their daughters are forty or twelve. Faraway visitors are arriving in just a few days. I could sneak in as one of them, and-" Aladdi cut herself off before she gave away the plan forming in her head.

"How do you know this? An affair with a kitchen maid?"

Aladdi tried to conceal her disgust at the thought, saying nothing but, "I have my friends, you have the people you bribe and threaten. To each his own." After a few more moments of thought, Aladdi spoke again. "Fourteen days, he said?"

"Yes, that's right."

She nodded slowly. "I can do it in seven, ten at the most."

Orem clapped his hands as if to rid them of sand. "Well, I'll let him know-"

"I'll need funds for acceptable clothing and tools," Aladdi said coolly.

The huge man frowned. "What? Well, oh, yes, I suppose you will. I'll send an accomplice of mine with sufficient funds, in advance out of your own pay, of course, and more specific information as to what and where and such."

"'Accomplice'? What, are you hiding the names of your scrawny child-slaves now?" Aladdi rolled her eyes and turned to leave. "Oh, and not Fanelli."

"You little sorcerer-thief! You're well aware that's exactly who I was thinking of."

"Do you want me to take this job or not?"

"Oh, whatever." Orem's brow furrowed in a way that reminded her of one of the little street children having a tantrum.

"Then send anyone but Fanelli. That boy gets on my nerves."

"Fine. You know, someday I'll find out about you," he said as she walked away. "I'll find out what your actual name is, Shadow Walker. I'll know where you go after you disappear too quickly for my boys to follow you. And I'll find out what the face under that scarf looks like! Just you wait!"

Aladdi smiled as she left the alley and wandered down the street. She saw at least two little boys following her. One of them was still clutching the piece he'd been given to trail the mysterious Shadow Walker to his hideout. But Aladdi ducked behind a building and loosed her hair from her scarf. The boys shook their heads in confusion, glancing around frantically, then turned with bowed heads to report to Orem that they'd lost him, yet again.

It was closer to an evening meal than a midday one now, so Aladdi set down a route so familiar her thoughts wandered as she made her way down it. She ducked under awnings, climbed up ladders and stairways, until she came to the last turn. Aladdi glanced around furtively, waiting for what felt like hours until she was sure nobody was suspiciously lingering, nobody had a strange look on their face or any odd behavior. She felt every muscle loosen as she entered her secret place.

It was a simple home, with a straw mat on the floor and a few stolen fancy things. But the little trinkets were not the main attraction of this hovel. Aladdi drew back a tattered curtain and gazed out over the most enviable view in Akraba.

From this window the girl could see the entire marketplace, dozens of shades of brown in a sandy sea. But dominating the image was the sultan's palace, looming over the streets like a magnificent, slightly grim father. Its lights shone in the setting sun, making it the most beautiful sight Aladdi was sure she had ever seen.

"Someday," she whispered to herself, letting the lonely girl show for the moment, while she was alone, "someday things will be different, Laddi. You'll be rich, live in a palace, and never have any problems at all."

She was tired after the day, and so she lay on her side on the straw mat, facing her view. She sighed, knowing how much work she had ahead of her if she was going to be successful in this job. Of course she would succeed! After all she had never yet failed. With this thought she turned over, yawning. It wouldn't hurt to get some sleep. She would start on preparations for the assignment tomorrow morning.

* * *

**So, yeah. Um, I know it might be absolutely cheesy, but I am seriously hoping that you liked it.**

**So, please! Review! I'd really like to know what you think!**

**Thank you for reading! If you liked the writing but not really the story, you could check out my Percy Jackson fanfic called New Girl: Mistake or Saviour? **

**Thanks again! Love you all!**

**-natalie.**


End file.
